


What the C is for.

by woolfverse



Series: Woolfverse [17]
Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: 2000s, Character of Color, Conversations, Endearments, Fluff, M/M, Middle Names, POV Third Person, Past Tense, honeymoon phase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-15
Updated: 2010-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-10 00:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woolfverse/pseuds/woolfverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Will Laurence is required to divulge a middle name he finds embarrassing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What the C is for.

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Tharkay wander into the room, toying with something between two hands. Taking no particular cue from the homework assignments Will had spread out on the dining table, he asked idly, "What does the 'C' stand for?"

His mind suddenly drawn away from tallying correct answers, Will glanced up. "I'm sorry?"

"William _C._ Laurence," Tharkay answered, brandishing the object in his hands: one of the cuff links Will had given him last weekend, bright against his skin. A smirk tugged his lips upward. "I suppose I may count myself lucky you do not insist on being called by your initials; I could not imagine saying them in bed."

"Oh, that," Will replied, attempting to feign indifference. Turning back to his work, he attempted to remember where he had been when Tharkay had come in. "It's my middle name--after my mother's brother."

A particularly pregnant moment of silence reigned until Will glanced back up. Tharkay was giving him a wry look, down the bridge of his nose, which would have worked far more spectacularly had he been wearing his reading glasses at the time. "I had gathered as much. Only, what does it stand for?"

Will sighed. "I am not terribly fond of it."

With a small clink, Tharkay set the cuff link down quite decidedly in the centre of the table, where it could not be lost. He walked toward Will, past him, and suddenly, his voice was directly in his ear, saying, "It cannot be so bad a name, if you bear it." Tharkay's arms draped over Will's chest as he leaned down to him. "Pray tell me what it is."

"That is fighting dirty," Will pointed out, but his complaints soon dissolved into a faint sigh; it was difficult to pretend vexation when Tharkay's mouth found his earlobe. "It--ah--it is Cecil."

At this admission, Tharkay paused, and Will showed considerable restraint in suppressing a groan. "William Cecil Laurence," he said, as though tasting the name. "Will Cecil." And, after a pause, the hissing breath coursing over Will's jaw, "_Cessy._"

Will _did_ groan here, and without any semblance of pleasure. "I do hate being called that."

"Have you been, previously?"

"I've two elder brothers and the second-worst middle name among them." Will leaned back in his chair, the warm weight of Tharkay at his shoulders proving a very nice distraction from both the conversation at hand and the work in front of him.

"The second-worst?" Tharkay repeated. "It's possible to be more alarmingly British? Is Henry's middle name Nigel?"

Will laughed, taking a certain malicious pleasure in answering, "Valentine, actually. A great-great-grandfather of ours or some such; in any case, I feel it trumps Cecil by far."

"Indeed," Tharkay agreed, leaning his head close to Will's. "I suppose I must be thankful you are a William; Captain Cecil does not sound nearly so well."

His breath was hot on Will's ear once more, sending a jolt of pleasure down his spine; turning toward Tharkay, he caught him in a long kiss. When they broke apart, he drew a deep breath, muttering, "I shall never finish my work at this rate."

Tharkay's fingertips drew featherlight lines down Will's chest. "I assure you, my Captain, I will not waste your time."

**Author's Note:**

> 2001, quite obviously a week after their little cufflink adventure.


End file.
